After only a few short months, the landscape of hiring prospective men-at-arms or fellow adventurers--or even a beggar or two--to fill out the ranks of an adventuring party has changed drastically. Uthia of Tarth was slain, and seemingly Zero Zaid as well; others have established themselves as loyal retainers of specific adventurers, as have Gan and Warda; and a group of potential hirelings even organized themselves into a formal society, the Society of Lamplighters, though little has come of it yet.
But this is the way of adventurers and their hangers-on--always changing, always the new replacing the old. Well, with the last two weeks of festival, a new crop of prospective hirelings have appeared amongst the lesser taverns, drawn by rumors of the wealth and success that certain of the company have managed to accumulate in the employ of the Survivors, of the Crag Keep, or of Durham of the Ringing Anvil.
Prospective employers will note that the influx of new gold to the city has inflated the costs of finding a hireling, but that the interests of certain adventurers in "picking out of a pool of like-classed hirelings" has suggested a new way to spend money to cajole these ne'er-do-wells into working for oneself:
It should also be noted that as the shuffle of buying drinks to find a prospective-hireling's whereabouts has become a kind of ritual in town, so there is a different process in hiring someone with whom a character has had a previous association (e.g. gone on an expedition together; the Scribes keep track of such things).
If there is a character one has had association with whom the player-character specifically wishes to hire, they may choose to pay for a round of carousing (probably 100 gp, except for the few characters on the list already of higher level) and thereby learn that character's favorite hangouts, such that they can be found again in the future without the rigmarole of the table above. Thereafter, that player-character may seek out that prospective-hireling for any future session; the potential hireling is still free to refuse, if there is reason (dislike the proposed expedition, bad blood between them and party members, &c.).
As has always been the case, hirelings are to be paid per class at the end of an expedition (this gold is theirs; the gold spent as above was spent procuring their services):
- beggars are to be paid 5 gp
- footmen, likely youths, and specialists are to be paid 25 gp or a 10% share of treasure at the end of an expedition
- classed characters are to be paid a 50% share of treasure at the end of an expedition
(a share defined as an adventurer-share, so a footman should be paid 10% of what a player-character is paid)
Further rules concerning the class of the hireling are covered under the original post.
Two final items of note: training and retaining:
Concerning training, it has been established by precedent that likely youths, specialists, and footmen can be trained by classed player-characters, if an interest is taken in their further development. A player-character taking a likely youth under their wing can train them up into their own class with the use of a week of downtime. Depending on the circumstances, the youth may thence be taken on as a retainer, or set free to develop as they will.
A specialist or footman, meanwhile, requires more time; already set somewhat in their ways (and skills), such a character requires at least three weeks of downtime training, initiated by at least one week successfully led by a player-character mentor.
Meanwhile, it has become established practice that certain favored hirelings can be indefinitely retained by their employing player-character. Gan and Warda being the most obvious, though Vlana the Bard, by joining the Survivors of the Tel, may fall somewhat into this category. This practice is not to be strictly delineated; it is, after all, a rather personal relationship or contract, developed between employer and retainer out of established rapport.
Nevertheless, it bears mention as a possibility, for those considering such a prospect of permanently retaining one amongst the numbers of hirelings ...
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